Makar Sakranti box office clash: Mahesh Babu’s Guntur Kaaram leads, Teja Sajja’s Hanu Man can be the surprise package

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Evaluating the situation, Muthayala Ramdasu, vice president, Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, Andhra Pradesh, says that Mahesh Babu’s Guntur Kaaram will get a wide release on single screens and multiplexes owing to the popularity of the actor. Talking to indianexpress.com, he said, “Guntur Kaaram is a big movie and that is why single theatres and multiplexes, major shows are allotted for it.”

Pointing out that youth is excited about Mahesh Babu and families are inclined towards Venkatesh Daggubati and Nagarjuna’s Naa Saami Ranga, he also highlighted that this Sankranti festival, no dubbed films from other industries are part of the competition, giving room to the Telugu releases.

“No doubt there are clashes but this year from dubbed movies. For instance, if there is a Rajinikanth or some other big Tamil film releasing, it leads to box office clashes. Then, there would be a division of screens between the big Telugu films and the Tamil film. Everyone wants to occupy theatres, and according to availability, they have to be accommodated, ” he said.

Predicting the business at the box office, trade analyst and industry expert Ramesh Bala says, “In Telugu, the biggest draw will be Guntur Kaaram. If the movie is good, it has the potential to do Rs 200 to Rs 250 crores at the box office. ”

He also believes that Hanu Man can get good business if it gets positive word-of-mouth. “Hanu Man is a pan-India release; they are also releasing it in Hindi and other languages. Like Karthikeyan, which is a spiritual film and released in Hindi also, they are positioning it in both Telugu and Hindi and other languages. I am not sure how it will do in Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. The lead actor is not a huge star so it will have to rely on word of mouth. Then we have Nagarjuna and Venkatesh’s movies, which have the potential to do Rs 100 crore.”

With two films releasing on January 12 and one each on January 13 and January 14, it is needless to say that the real fight for screens will start from Monday, January 15.

However, with Guntur Kaaram, backed by big distributors like Dil Raju, the film is expected to block at least 50 percent of the screens, leaving the rest for the other three films to divide amongst themselves.

Trade expert Sreedhar Pillai is placing his bet on Hanu Man, provided the content is good.

“Right now I believe Guntur Kaaram and the other two – Venkatesh and Nagarjuna’s films will get maximum screens in the two Telugu-speaking states but please note that Hanu Man, if the content is good, then definitely will rule in one or two week’s time . More screens can be added to it depending upon its commercial success.”

It is interesting to note that after the four Sankranti releases, there is no big Telugu film scheduled to release until February, giving films enough time to make the most of it. Could a later release have helped Hanu Man more? “If you ask me, if Hanu Man would have released a little later on January 26, they would have gotten a wider release, ” Sreedhar says.